The Clawed Promise
by YokaiMoonRiver12
Summary: Kagome is the heir of a forgotten ancient promise made by her ancestor Kikyo. But now Kagome must remember the promise and quickly, before it's too late.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi, this is my first multiple chapter story, I hope you enjoy it. **

**I don't own Inuyasha**.

Kagome was in a field of wildflowers wearing her favorite yellow sundress, sitting down with her family for a rare picnic dinner away from the family shrine. Her family almost never left the shrine due to what her Grandpa said was an 'ancient promise' he said that there was always suppose to be a Higurashi at the shrine at all times to 'uphold the promise', (whatever that meant) that the Higurashi's have held that promise for almost five hundred years, and just because they were feeling a little stir-crazy doesn't mean a thing.

Mom said cheerfully that Grandpa was just a little off his rocker and that she couldn't stay cooped up in a shrine her whole life. Especially on her eldest child's fifthteen birthday, so time to go on a picnic!

"Kagome, here's your napkin and that water you like." Mom said, handing her a napkin, along with a bottle of her favorite flavored water.

"Thanks, Mom."

Her Mom started taking out the food, while her Gramps still looked grumpy, he stopped freaking out about breaking 'the ancient promise' thing, and started up on one of his so-called historic stories of the ancient family shrine (which meant he was feeling a lot better). Souta had decided that this was a good chance to study 'the insect life in the surrounding area' aka 'looking for bugs'. Everything was perfect.

Then everything was ripped apart. By the sharp deadly claws of a creature, those body was in the shape of a human except it had the ears of a dog.

The only thing Kagome could think of as her family was destroyed in seconds by those clawed hands was: _What strange yellow eyes._

And then the…creature turned to her, and spoke.

"Where are you going, human?"As his mouth opened and close she saw the slight glimpse of teeth like those of a wolf.

She screamed.

**I am sorry for such a cliff-hanger, but the next chapter will be longer. I promise. **


	2. Koga

**Hi! I hope you enjoy this new chapter of The Clawed Promise, and as promised this one **_**is**_** longer. **

Chapter 2: Koga

"Kagome-san, Kagome-san…Kagome Higurashi, wake up!" Snapped the sharp voice of my hated math teacher. Ugh, Why did he have to be to annoying? I was just resting my head on my desk for a few minutes…My desk…which meant I was still in school! I bolted upright, dazed and confused, what had I been dreaming about? I remember blood… and… oh! Those eyes, those strange yellow eyes, I took a deep breath. That was just a dream, right now I should be paying attention to reality, especially my Sensei, and judging by the large vein that was practically pulsing in his forehead, he wasn't happy.

"I'm sorry sensei! I really didn't mean to fall asleep. I mean…I wasn't asleep; I was just closing my eyes so I could think better. Haha, you know with how hard math is, I surprised that you teach math at all, seeing how everyone hates it so much…"

Smothered laughter from all my classmates, _geeze Kagome, could you put your foot even further in your mouth?_

"Kagome Higurashi, since you like mouthing off so much, how about you stay after school and we will have a nice long chat about it then?" Said Sensei, the vein now looked ready to jump right out of his forehead.

"Yes, Sensei,"

I sighed, life can be so unfair. Why didn't life, or fate or destiny have any sense of fairness about it? Maybe I was just supposed to go through life without any fairness at all.

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Kagome was walking home after a long harsh scolding from sensei, and then a report due about Ōkubo Toshimichi in three days. Grrrr. Oh, well and at least he hadn't told mom, that would have been a disaster.

Kagome loved walking home, because of the way her house was built way high up on a large hill, with a long stairway leading up to the shrine, and one side of the hill was were the city began and on the other side was an old forest. Small, but dark and shady, at least forty acres or so; when Kagome was young she would spend hours in there, and in its heart lay a beautiful old Japanese style home. It was in that house that she had met…

Suddenly a fast paced wind was all around her, tangling her clothes and hair and getting dust everywhere.

"Hey, Kagome," said one of her oldest friends, Koga. He was the one who made the wind. "You don't look well; did 'public school' tire you out? Let me carry your bag for you."

"Thanks, but no thanks and Koga, and public school tires everyone out. It's not just me, and aren't you supposed to be miles away on 'secret demon business'." Kagome said.

"My 'secret demon business' didn't take as long as I thought. Ginta said he saw you walking home and I thought I would stop by, and you know, the food they had there was terrible."

By now the two friends (and neighbors) were half-way up the stairs, Kagome was in her uniform and Koga in his 'human clothes' which consisted of a white button down and a pair of jeans, his long brown ponytail swishing around his face. Usually all Koga wore were animals skins, but whenever he had to travel among humans he would tone it down some, though what he did to his clothes still wouldn't change the fact that he was a demon, his pointed ears and the his tail were proof of that.

Ordinary human knew about the existents of demon, but the demons kept to themselves and most people would live their entire life without seeing one, but Kagome had known more about demons and the supernatural than all of her friends before she could walk, being a priestess-in-training had its advantages, it also helped that Koga's private home was in the woods right next to where she lived. Kagome knew that Koga was old, very, very old. Not that he ever told her how old he was, but he once said that when he came here the first time there had been no shrine, and her shrine was over four hundred years old.

Kogame signed, it looked like her friend was trying to wiggle his way into dinner again, might as well give up now, because Koga was very stubborn.

"Koga, would you like to come to dinner? My mom is making curry." Kagome said, they were at the entrance to the shrine now, its old sturdy pillars marking the entrance to her home.

Koga bowed, "I'm flattered by your invitation, and you know I always love to eat your mother's cooking,"

"Okay, just remember; don't tease Gramps. I don't care what he says about demons, just ignore him, and you _should_ have a tougher hide." As Kagome talked she walked through the pillars, she smiled she loved the feeling of going through the barrier, it gave her a warm tingling feeling, and the barrier had been surrounding the shrine since it had been built.

"Ow! Damn it, Kagome ow!" Oops, she forgot about Koga. He was standing right outside the shrine entrance, rubbing furiously at his arms and face as through something had stung him. She had forgotten the invisible barrier blocked out demons, and the demons that touched it got quite a shock. She quickly knelt down on the hard stones and traced the kanji for stranger, one, and open with her finger. This would allow Koga to spend one day inside the barrier with no ill effects and then after the day was up, he would be quickly be let outside the barrier before its effect on demons started working.

"You could have done that sooner you know!?" said Koga, still rubbing at his arms, as he walked through the barrier.

"Well, you were the one who walked into it!" snapped Kagome, irritable that she had made a mistake. But before it could become a quarrel, Souta came running over.

"Koga you're back! Are you staying for dinner?" He said, looking adoring at Koga.

"Yeah, he is. Tell mom, okay?" said Kagome, trying to distract Souta from his hero-worship.

"Okay!" Souta said, his face lighting up, and then started running back to the house.

"Are you sure you want to stay, you're going to have to deal with Souta for the next two hours, _and_ Gramps"

"Like you said Kagome, I have a tougher hide than that." Her wolf-demon friend said, smirking at her.

"I didn't say that! I said you _should_ have a tougher hide, not that you _did_!" said Kagome, but she couldn't help smiling. "Come on, you can help peel potatoes."

**Yes, Koga and Kagome are going to be a little OC, but think about it. Koga is way older now and it makes sense that he would act differently. **

**I would love a review. **


	3. Dark, Stench

**I don't own Inuyasha. **

Koga was sitting at the kitchen table…peeling potatoes. If his pack could see him now! He was the wise leader of all the demon-wolf tribes, an old but fierce warrior, and known flirt, peeling potatoes. How far would he sink for this girl? But as he watched Kagome flitting about humming, washing this and chopping that, helping her mother make the food he liked so much… he couldn't help but melt.

When they first met, he had known that she was The One, not just in human terms but in wolf demon terms as well and wolves mated for life. Of course she was so young at the time that he definitely didn't feel any romantic feelings for her, what did you think I was some pedophile! But only in this last year did he smell that the girl had become a woman, and at the same time she became beautiful to him. He knew he would have to wait a little longer until he could court her properly, but he wasn't worried about that, until then he would be the best friend she had _and_ he would make _sure_ that no human boys would turn her way. If he was a bit younger he would have been a lot less patient.

Koga took in a deep breath of Kagome's scent, and froze. There was something in her scent that hadn't been there before, something dark, old, and yet on her it was a very recent scent. He had only been gone less than a month, and she certainly hadn't smelled odd than! Well, I guess that only way to found out would be to ask.

"Hey Kagome, has anything strange happened to you lately? You didn't go to any cursed temples or anything like that right?"

"Why would I do that?" Kagome raised her eyebrows at him.

"I don't know. Why would you?"

"I haven't gone to any strange temples, and my life is perfectly normal. Well…except for the fact I 'm a priestess in training, by best friend is five hundred years old and my grandpa sees life-threatening demons around every corner."

Mmm…What _had_ happened to her? He knew she wasn't the type to hides things from people and when she was at home she was heavily guarded by the same things that kept him out, and ditto for at school.

But that dark lurking scent would not go away.

**Sorry it's so short, and so late. I would really love some reviews, please. **


	4. The Young Miko

**I don't own Inuyasha.**

"Kagome! Bring down your sheets, and tell Souta to bring his down too!" Mom yelled.

The day was beautiful; it was turning out to be a dry and hot midsummer. The shrine looked beautiful, and there was a feeling of laziness of the air, but of course Kagome's Mom felt none of it. She had declared that today was a cleaning day and Kagome knew that within an hour, every scrap of laundry would be out on the line.

Kagome looked around her slightly cluttered room; her desk was littered with pencils, pens, a calculator, and paper, she had been up late studying, to get in the collage of her choice she would have to work her but off. She had never been really good at studying, and while she never really got bad marks, she never really got good ones either. She really didn't want to go to college at all; there really wasn't anything she wanted to do… except for one.

In the mix of ordinary teenage girl a few things stood out in her room; a bow and a quiver of arrows in one corner, I small chest in another, and if someone was to nose around in said chest, they would have found neatly tied bundles of herbs, beads, and old scrolls inside, and if you looked carefully you would find tiny secret compartments that hid the more deadly herbs.. In her book shelf, almost all the books looked dusty, as if they had never been touched. But others were full of bookmarks and the covers were well worn. The titles were something like 'Japanese Folktales', or 'Medicinal Herbs' and 'Oni of Legends'.

Kagome sighed sadly; speaking of Oni, she hadn't seen Koga for almost two months. He hadn't said where he was going this time (Not that he usually did), and when she asked if it was demon business he said, and she quoted 'No, it's _my_ business'. Greeze, talk about communication issues…but she wasn't mad. Koga and the few members left of his pack were all her friends, and at one time or another all of them had come to her home and met her family and she couldn't stay mad at them for long.

Lately she couldn't shake the feeling that something was calling her, and when Kagome had 'a feeling' she learned to listen to it.

Shaking her head, Kagome brought herself back to reality.

"Hey, Mom wants all your sheets, its laundry day!" she yelled down the hall in the direction of her brother's room.

"Coming! Kagome does she want my blanket too?" Souta asked, poking his head out of his room.

"Yeah, she decided to go on a cleaning spree."

"Aw, not again, the last one upturned the entire house!"

"Don't complain, look I will even bring them down for you." Kagome said, smiling. Her brother was very different from her, responsible and intelligent. More than once he had helped her with her chores, or reminded her of some assignment she had to do.

Sometimes he reminded her of dad.

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I walked out the front door, juggling the basket of wet laundry Mom had handed to me. I quickly started to pin it on the line, the worn wooden clothes pins holding the dripping sheets in place. I remember when I was little I would hide among the laundry and wait for mom to catch me; sometimes I would even get Souta to play with me.

Suddenly my heart stopped, my ears rang and the sheet I was holding slipped from my hand because I was shaking so much. This must be what like being in the eye of the storm is like, intense energy all around me; the only safe place was where I stood.

Unlike when you are in a storm, I could feel myself being pulled _toward_ the energy. I was being pulled to the Tree of Ages. The white border marking where the sacred tree was blowing slightly in the muggy air; and melting out of the bark of the tree was a hand. A hand! Her knees went weak, her breath drew quicker, but she did not run; and the limp and long nailed the hand emerged out of the tree much in the way of something rising out of water. Next came an arm, then a torso clothed in a red kimono, and last a head with a long mane of tangled white hair; and atop that mane was a pair of ears, cat like ears, but not as thin.

The strange man (for the creature that had come out of the tree was male.) hit the ground with a slight thump, totally unconscious.

The unconscious body was only four feet away from me. I waited, making sure that he wasn't moving before coming any closer. This was weird. During my life I had seen some pretty strange things, but usually I at least knew what they were. Ghost or ghoul, oni or, kami; familiar or god, but I had seen most of these things; but usually I had an explanation for most of them.

This I had no explanation for.

**Hi, sorry about taking so long to put this up. I hope you guys like it. Please if you can, review. Please?**


	5. The Library

**Hi, sorry that this took so long and please excuse any errors. **

**I don't own Inuyasha, that's for sure. **

Koga was tired, he didn't know how long he had been sitting in this dusty old library with all its uncomfortable straight-backed chairs, but if he had to look at another tattered old scroll he thought he would die. It had been almost two months since he had last seen Kagome and was starting to miss her enormously, but he was also worried. The scent that surrounded Kagome reminded him of something like an ancient curse, a horrible binding curse.

He knew that Kagome was strong. She had been working with a bow since she was little; she had strong morals, knew quite a lot about mononoke and their weaknesses, but was still innocent and maybe a bit naïve. She had never seen real bloodshed, had never been in a battle where her life, or the lives of the ones she loved were in danger. She was an untested blade, yet unblooded. So as any young man in love, he fretted.

Within in a week of scenting the curse on Kagome, he went off as soon as he could to find the origins of this "curse". The shrine, (which housed a tochigami), for hundreds of years had purified and broken many curses such as the one Kagome had, but it didn't seem to affect it at all. The government had all the schools heavily warded against any of the students getting attacked by or doing anything that had to do with the supernatural. Again, Kagome's curse wasn't even noticed. He was starting to think he had imagined the whole thing, but the last time he had seen Kagome the smell had grown even stronger.

He decided that the best place to look was in the past, and though he really didn't like reading (way to many kanji in one place…but he loved manga, recently he liked the one called 'Bleach'), he had gone to several old libraries before deciding to go to an old demon friend who kept a extensive library of Japanese legends, myth and folklore. Koga remembered one old legend about a miko who fell in love with a demon, but the miko ended up cursed and the curse passing on to her descendents as well; but he couldn't remember where he had seen such a legend. Now, he knew hundreds about demons and humans falling in love and it ending in tragedy (he hated those), but the reason that one caught his eye was because of one thing. The miko's family was said to be the founder of the Higurashi shrine.

He had thought the legend was a fake, and even if it was real, he had never heard or seen anything about the Higurashi's family that suggested they had a curse of any sort.

Until now.

**A big thanks to every person that sent me a review, each time I read one I get a boost of courage. **


	6. Kikyo

I don't own Inuyasha. Trust me, I really don't. ; )

Everything hurt. Had I finally died? I remembered…her face, so damn beautiful. Calm, quiet, but with eyes that held fire. All the bloodsplattered on her white and red robes, her hands that brought my near end and her oath that took me so far away from her, swearing…Her swearing an oath to me.

I can still smell the monster that killed her, its' rottenness hanging in the air, swollen and thick. Naraku you bastard! Why couldn't you just leave us alone? Why couldn't you accept defeat? We could have had a life together, we could have been happy; I would do anything for her! All that is gone now.

Slowly, I became aware of a sound; something, soft, quiet and in a tone so familiar to me that I heard it in my sleep.

Kikyo! I used the last ounce of strength left in my body, lurched forward and reached out towards her voice. Grabbed her tightly and hung on for dear life, but as my eyes and nose cleared I realized that the person I was hugging wasn't Kikyo!

I sprang backward, shocked and alarmed. The girl in front of me looked so similar to Kikyo, that if I didn't' have a demon's nose that I would have thought them the same. Her eyes were wide, and she wore strange tight clothing. She was crouched in a defensive position with a bow, an arrow nocked and ready to fire.

"Who are you?"

I blinked. Her words were in perfectly understandable Japanese, but the toning and phasing were all different; almost foreign.

"Why should I tell you, human?"

Hi, Sorry this is so short and so late. It's been kind of crazy. But I have some exciting news…I have a Beta! BlackwolfRises has graciously agreed to be my beta, so the updates will be a little more consistent.


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